1901-1907

Crossing the Atlantic

In 1901, Lord Francis Hope sold the Hope Diamond to London diamond merchant Adolf Weil, who sold the diamond to Joseph Frankel's Sons & Co. of New York shortly thereafter. Simon Frankel sailed to London from New York to finalize the purchase. One source reported that Frankel paid $250,000 (~6.7 million 2014 dollars) for the diamond (Patch 1999).

Frankel brought the Hope Diamond back to New York to try to sell it in America, but received no reasonable offers. By 1907, the market for diamonds had sharply declined due to a slow economy, and Frankel's company faced the possibility of bankruptcy (Kurin 2006). The Hope Diamond sat locked away in a New York safe deposit box while Frankel tried to find a buyer.